Letter: Obama fails to deliver proper State of the Union

Wednesday

Feb 5, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 5, 2014 at 6:08 PM

If you were one of the unlucky 10 percent of the American population who watched the State of the Union address last week, there are a number of issues the president failed to mention and a number of inaccuracies in his talking points.

If you were one of the unlucky 10 percent of the American population who watched the State of the Union address last week, there are a number of issues the president failed to mention and a number of inaccuracies in his talking points.

Missing from the litany of promises and grievances were Benghazi, the IRS, North Korea, and the national debt. No apprehensions of terrorists that killed four Americans in Benghazi, even though the president promised those responsible would be brought to justice. When?

Itís the same story with the IRS. What appears to be politically motivated malfeasance against conservative groups has been conveniently swept away. North Korea, surely a rogue nation, didnít make the radar. Perhaps the president is unsure of what kind of strategy to undertake to deal with that potential threat. It appears as if the strategy is to ignore North Korea, along with the national debt that has topped the $17 trillion dollar mark.

There was an abundance of disregard and contempt for the separation of powers as the president promised to go around Congress if he doesnít get his way. His petulance promised to act on his own by writing executive orders in matters which are clearly outside the powers of the executive branch enumerated in the Constitution. The civic illiteracy of this president and his followers is astounding.

The president spoke often of ďself-relianceĒ but negated the meaning of it by promising that government would be there to fulfill the wish list of every man, woman and child in the United States. He did fail, however, to mention who would be paying for this largesse.

Accolades were plentiful when the president mistakenly said women are paid only 77 cents on a dollar compared to men. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has addressed that problem and women workers have legal recourse. There are real reasons for the small inequality, mostly because of the choices women freely make. Interestingly enough, women working in the White House make 18 percent less than their male counterparts. That is close to 77 cents on a dollar.

As usual the presidentís speech was divisive and ideologically driven. Instead of presenting Congress information of the state of the union as outlined in the Constitution, it sounded more like a campaign speech. But thatís nothing new, is it?